Isklar's "It's Time For Change" DFW diary

Isklar

I had my LBM yesterday.:o I have never added up the outstanding balances on all my cards, just continued spending, paying off the minimum, head in the sand scenario.:rolleyes: But I sat down and added them all up yesterday..
My debt totals £13,950. I feel sick every time I think about it...:eek:
Anyway, it's time for change and now's when I start to tackle it.

A problem that I have in trying to sort my finances is that my income varies a lot each month, as I'm self employed. I have a guaranteed £320 a month coming in from one job, but my other jobs the amount can vary from £750 a month to a big fat ZERO in a bad month. My average monthly income is £650.

My debts are spread across 4 credit cards. Two are LOB, fixed at 0.479% per month (I dont how to calcualte this a s a p.a figure) on one and at 7.92% per annum on the other. The two other cards are 0% deals, but one ends in April, the other in July. I owe £8k on those two combined so when the 0% ends I'm going to be in a bigger mess!:eek:

I'm single, no kids. I don't have a mortgage. If I had a mortgage to pay I'd have gone under...

So, my inital thoughts are :

1) focus on paying off the most expensive card. That's the 7.92% one. I've been making minimum payments on that one since August and the balance has hardly shifted. Last month I paid £25 but the interest was £12.81 !

2) Consider other work options. I think I need a steady and regular income until I'm DF. I love being self employed and I love the flexibility I get with my two jobs, but if they're not paying enough for me to pay off this debt, then they have to go.

3) Spending. I spend too much on food. I can definitely and quite easily cut back there. I've been spending time on the OS board for tips. The first thing is to do a weekly menu plan and to stick to it.
I also tend to buy lots of little things on impulse, rather than being a 'big' spender on things like holidays, cars etc.

It's easy for me to feel overwhelmed, so for now I'm focusing on not spending anything on groceries this week. I have enough food to last me till next week, so I'll use up what I can. Then I'll do a 7 day menu plan before I shop.

Today's goals :
1) Do menu plan based on food in the house, to last till next Tuesday.
2) Return unwanted Amazon gift

Apart from finances, frankly my life is a bit of a mess. I need to lose weight, make some more friends, get some confidence etc etc.

sparky0107

My debts are spread across 4 credit cards. Two are LOB, fixed at 0.479% per month (I dont how to calcualte this a s a p.a figure)

Welcome Isklar,
Well done on your LBM, the cost of the card @ 0.479% per month works out at 5.75% per annum. Good luck on your journey

beanielou

Happy new diary

Raini

Hello & welcome to diaryland! :hello: Well done you on adding it all & facing up to it all :T:T I remember that sinking feeling & it does get better bit by bit. Good & luck & remember that you're in good company!

Isklar

Sparky107, thanks for working out the p.a rate on my other card, it does help. Now I know I'm doing the right thing by focusing on paying the other one off.

It's been a quiet couple of days, I've not spent much, still trying to sort out my finances. I've realised that organising my paperwork is not one of my strong points, my 'files' (Piles of papers in the spare bedroom!) are a right mess.

Today will be a NSD. I'm staying at home,working and tidying the bathroom. Boring but it will keep me out of money trouble!
Oh also become aware that watching QVC is bad for me - I see, I want, I spend. So there'll be no QVC viewing for me today.

longhotbath

With the amazon gift - could you sell it on ebay. If you return it to amazon, the original purchaser gets informed (there was an article in last weeks saturday daily mail).

Good luck, and it will get better!

Isklar

I can't believe it's nearly 6 months since I started this thread. I had intended to update regularly but completely forgot I'd started it..

Anyway. Now is the time to really get a grip on my life.

I realised that I'll be 50 in 18 months time. I want to spend the next 18 months totally turning my life around so that my 50's are 100000% better than my 40's have been.

Current state of play.

Work - this has been a nightmare. Lost most of my work and am now working one day a week in admin. Bringing home £320 a month BUT I'm self employed so that's not my net pay in reality. I need to find more work. I've got no confidence and the thought of applying for a job scares me to death. And of course there's not much work out there at the mo!

Finance - debts now total £13k. Haven't got the exact figure, I will calculate it this week and post it in my sig. Credit cards are approx £4k, one is 0% till next March, the other is LOB one at 5.75% as kindly calculated by Sparky :T. The other £9k is a student loan, I conveniently keep forgetting about that one :eek: . I'm not repaying it yet as I don't earn anywhere near enough.


Life in general - total disaster.

I'll write a lot more about this all but I'm single, no family, I've got no friends locally, no social life, no confidence and I think I'm probably a little bit depressed (if it's possible to be a 'little bit' depressed). I've had serious depression in the past and I'm not that bad, but I am feeling rotten enough so that everything seems too much of an effort and it's very hard for me to motivate myself to do anything other than the absolute essentials. I'm also eating far too much which is making me fatter - I'm already 5st overweight. I've been told that I really do need to lose weight. So this has several negative effects. Spend too much on food, feel fat so I feel depressed, feel depressed so I overeat.....:o I've been advised to do a low glycemic load (GL) eating plan, which can be expensive. I also feel terribly unfit and need to start an exercise plan.

My house is a mess, all part of my state of mind too I suppose.

So apart from finances things that need dealing with are :

1) Social life
2) Housework
3) Weight loss
4) Confidence and self esteem.

A big problem for me is feeling overwhelmed, I don't know where to start...I'm going to try to work out for myself a step by step plan of action for each area I want to tackle.

Goals for this week
1)The tax man owes me about £400. I want it back! So I'll fill the forms in and get them in the post.

2)I will also find my most recent credit card statements so I know exactly how much my debt is.

3) And one NSD, which will be tomorrow.

I'm really scared of the future, feel as if everything is out of control and that I dont feel strong enough to handle it, and feel very alone just now, but just writing this I feel a bit better now. I read a lot of the diaries on here and they are very inspirational.

Isklar

Didn't sleep well last night, worrying about everything, convinced I'm going to be spending my old age alone, eating cat food and wearing cardi's with holes in them. Well I guess if I can only afford cat food at least I'll lose some weight... :eek:
This week I'm definitely going to sort out all paperwork, so that means reclaiming what the tax man owes me, and calcualting my exact figure of debt, but also making sure I've got all my cc statements filed away instead of heaped in a pile on the spare bedroom floor, sort utility bills, check gas usage this past quarter. I'm determined to keep the heating off till beginning of October. I always feel the cold really easily and am particulary nesh...Last winter I'm sure I managed till the first week in November but it was mild up till then.
I'm waiting for my energy monitor to come from E-on, as I feel like i use a lot of electricity. There again I'm home all day 6 days a week.... They sent a letter last week saying I will still get it but there's been a huge demand for them so they are a bit delayed.

Not feeling too great today, but am determined to make some changes and improve my life.
Onward and upward !

cashsaver

Hi... Just wanted to say "hang in there, things will get better." I have in the past, worried for days about my situation but have found taking action (baby steps no matter how small) really helps and is pretty empowering. There is a lot of help on this site. Good luck.

Isklar

cashsaver wrote: »

Hi... Just wanted to say "hang in there, things will get better." I have in the past, worried for days about my situation but have found taking action (baby steps no matter how small) really helps and is pretty empowering. There is a lot of help on this site. Good luck.

Thanks for your support, it means a lot to me to know I'm not alone, and thanks for the motivation there to keep taking those teeny baby steps.

Isklar

NSD yesterday.
Today I went to the farm shop and got some local tomatoes, which are gorgeous and disappearing fast, and some lettuce seeds. Tomorrow will be a spendy day as I need to get some pots for the lettuce, compost etc.